Dyeing apparatus



Nov. 15, 1949 L. J. LEDERER ETAL DYEING APPARATUS Filed May 10, 1948FIG. 1-

FIG-6- INVENTORS ZEwvnR/J JLEPERER QM gi J. LEDISRER)JR FIG. -7-

Patented Nov. 15, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DYEING APPARATUSLeonardJ. Lederer, Clifton, and Leonard: J. Lederer, J r., ProspectPark, N. 1.,

Application May 10, 1948, Serial No: 263206 2 Claims. 7 1

This. invention relates to improvements in. dye-- ing apparatus and. isparticularly directed to improvements in reels employed in suchapparatus.

In dyeing apparatus a. web of the material to be dyed,. which may becotton, linen, silk or any other textile fabric, is; drawn over a reelsupported above a dye tub and rotated by motor driven means. the ends ofthe web of material are stitched or otherwise secured together toprovide a continuous web of considerably greater length than thedistance between the reel and the bottom of the tub, so that the majorportion of the web is submerged in. a dye bath in the tub. As the reelis rotated the web of material is continuously drawn from a portion ofthe tub at one side of the reel thence over the reel and is deposited infolds in the portion of the tub at the otherside of the reeL. Thematerial is slack when in the tub and floats through the dye bath; as itis withdrawn from the folds continuously by the reel, whereby to permitimpregnation by the dye.

In apparatus of. the. character indicated as at. present constructed,the reels are covered with cloth, preferably cotton, whereby to insurepulling of the web of material being dyed in, the manner described. Thecloth covering may be used in several dyeing operations, so long as thedye is of the same or a darker color.. However, when it is desired tochange to a lighter dye. the cloth covering must be bleached to removethe dye of the previous bath, or the covering replaced with a new one.Such bleaching is objectionable for several reasons, among which are theexpense of the bleach and the delay in the dyeing operations required byreason of the shutting down of the apparatus during the bleachingoperations An other objection to the cloth covering is that; its lifeis. of very short duration, because of wear and of the deterioration ofthe cloth due to the acid of certain dyes, whereby shutting down of theapparatus. is necessitated also during, the removal of the uselesscovering and the stitching orotherwise securing of a new covering in itsplace, with the resultant loss of man hours and delay in the dyingoperation, as well as the necessity of keeping a supply of cloth on handfor new coverings in addition. to the expense involved, in the cost ofthe number of coverings required in a given period.

One: of the: objects of. the present invention resides in the; provisionof dyeing. apparatus of the class described, and. particularly a. reelfor use therewith which will overcome all of the disadvantages of andobjections to such apparatus and reels, as at present. constructed,

Another object resides in the provision of a reel wherein the coveringtherefor will have a much longer life than the conventional clothcovering, whereby the expense of frequent. replacing of the covering isreduced to a minimum.

Another object of. the present invention resides in theprovision of acovered reel which is acid resistant, water repellant, resilient, willnot re.- quire bleaching, will not, be adversely affected by acids ordyes, and which can be rinsed very read.- ily and quickly to conditionthe. apparatus for dyeing with different colors.

Another object. resides in the provision. of a covered reel which will.havebetter pulling qualities. than conventional cloth covered reels.

A further object resides in the provision of a covering for reels of thecharacter indicated which can be readily secured to the reels, and whichwill perform its functions efficiently, effectively and economically.

Qther and further objects of the. inventionwill be manifest from thefollowing description and the accompanying drawing, in which drawing:

Fig. l is: an elevational view of a reel made in accordance with ourinvention;

Fig. 2 is an end viewof the reel of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an end view of another form of reel embodying our invention;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of a section of the material employed in coveringthe reel;

Fig. 5.- is a sectional view of the material of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary view of the peripheral face of the reel of Fig,'3; and

Fig. 7 is: a schematic side elevational view of dyeing apparatusemploying our invention.

Referring to the. drawing in detail, and first to the apparatus.illustrated in Fig. 7, dyeing apparatus generally comprises aconventional dye tub [I] for containing dyestuif in the form of a liquidbath. Such apparatus also includes a pair of standards I2. on. eitherside of the tub supporting a reel M which is. driven. from a. source ofpower such as an electric motor l6 through a drive belt l8. Some dyeingapparatus employ more than one reel, but for the purpose of descriptionof the present invention the illustration of an apparatus employing asingle reel is deemed sufiicient.

The dye tub is provided with a drain 20 for removal of the dye bath, andhas an inlet pipe 22 for supplying water to the tub for diluting the dyeand for washing the tub after a dyeing operation. A perforated partition24 may be interposed between the water inlet and the tub proper toprevent splashing of the incoming water.

The reels of the present invention, while shown as elliptical incross-section in the drawing, may be circular in cross-section, and forpurpose of description will be referred to as drums or cylinders. Thedrum or cylinder of Figs. 1 and 2 comprises a sheet of stainless steelor other suitable material 26, secured at each of its ends by riveting,welding or in any other suitable manner, to frame members 28 comprisinga rim 30 carried by a spider or spokes 32. The spokes each have acentral apertured bushing for the reception of a shaft 34 which is keyedthereto. One end of the shaft is provided with a pulley 36 (Fig. 7) overwhich the drive belt i8 passes, whereby rotary motion is imparted to thereel, in the manner previously described.

The reel shown in Fig. 3 comprises a plurality of rods 38, instead ofthe steel sheet of Fig. 2. These rods are secured to frame members 28similar to those of Fig. 2. As will be seen from Figs. 3 and 6, the rods38 are disposed in spaced relation to each other, the purpose of whichwill be explained presently. A novel covering is provided for the reelsof Figs. 2 and 3 in accordance with the present invention. The materialof the covering of the reel, for accomplishing the objects of ourinvention, is a plastic composition, preferably a vinyl chlorideproduct. This composition may be extruded in a narrow strip 40, as shownin Figs. 4 and 5, of ap proximately one inch in width, and during theextruding operation, or following that operation, the material isknurled on one surface whereby to provide a plurality of smallprotuberances 42 thereon.

This strip is then applied to the drum 26 (Fig. 1) by first applying acoating of adhesive to the surface of the drum, then anchoring one end Iof the strip to the drum by inserting the same through an aperture 44 inthe wall thereof and clamping it to the frame or spider 32 by screws 46or other suitable clamping means. The strip is then spirally wound onthe drum with its knurled surface outward and with the side edges ofadjacent convolutions of the strip in abutment. After the winding iscompleted the other end of the strip is then similarly secured at theopposite end of the drum. If desired the ends of'strip may be secured tothe drum by adhesive instead of anchoring the same in the mannerdescribed, or both methods may be employed.

The same method or methods may be employed to secure the strip to thereel shown in Fig. 3. In this form the rods 38 are coated with adhesive,and the ends passed between the rods and anchored to the end frames 32in the manner described in connection with the reel of Figs. 1 and 2.With the covering applied to the reel or reels in the manner described,the apparatus is ready for operation. The material to be dyed is thenthrown over the reel and its ends securedto each other in theconventional manner to provide a continu- 4 The motor is then set inoperation to rotate the reel, and as the same rotates, the protuberancesprovided on the outer surface of the covering will tractionally engagethe material to be dyed and draw the same over the reel in the mannerpreviously described, without any slippage between the material and thereel, whereby the material will be pulled uniformly through the dye bathresulting in a uniform dyeing operation.

After one dyeing operation, it is conventional practice to drain off thedye liquid, substitute clean water therefor and then operate theapparatus with the clean water in the tub for a short duration, wherebyto wash the dye pigment out of the cloth covering on the reel. Thispractice can be practiced with the present invention, or the reel may berinsed with a hose. In either event, however, the time required to washthe reel covering will be reduced to a minimum because of the novelcovering and its characteristics hereinbefore mentioned.

In the form of reel shown in Fig. 3, the convolutions of the windings ofthe strip, instead of being abutted, are spaced from each otherapproximately a thirty-second of an inch, so that when cleaning thereel, in the manner just described, the cleansing water will passthrough the spaces between the convolutions and between the spaced rods38 of the reel into the tub.

We have chosen a vinyl chloride product'for the covering of the reelbecause it can readily be extruded and knurled, and because of its acidresistant, water repellant, resilient and durable characteristics.

It is to be understood that the covering, instead of being in the formof a narrow strip of approxi-' mately one inch in width, it may be ofany desired width and, if desired, it may be in the form of a sheet ofthe material mentioned, which sheet may be the full width of the reeland secured thereto by adhesive, and have the surface formations orprotuberances on its outer surfaces.

It is to be understood also that the surface formations on the materialof the covering for the reel of the present invention, instead of beingformed by knurling, may be provided in any desired manner; thedesideratum of the invention, insofar as the surface formations areconcerned, being the provision of a reel having a covering capable ofinsuring the desired traction between the material being dyed and thereel surface to accomplish effective pulling or drawing of the materialwithout any slippage or injury to the material being dyed.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the present invention provides areel for dyeing apparatus which overcomes all of the objections to, anddisadvantages of, former reels and provides longer life, better pullingqualities and a considerable saving in expense, in manpower and in timeover prior reels employed in dyeing apparatus.

'While we have illustrated and. described pre-' ferred embodiments ofour invention it is to be understood that we do not wish to belimited-to the precise construction and arrangement of parts of thoseembodiments, as obviously various changes and modifications may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of our invention.

What we claim is:

1. In dyeing apparatus, the combination of a reel, a narrow web ofplastic material on said reel spirally Wound thereon with theconvolutions 5 3 of the windings in spaced relation, and means forREFERENCES CITED anchoring the ends of the web to the reel.

2. A reel for dying apparatus comprising a pair g ifig ggigs are ofrecord m the of substantially elliptical end members, a plurality ofrods having their ends connected to the UN T STATES PATENTS periphery ofsaid members to form a reel, a Number Name Date covering of vinylchloride product on said reel, 1,118,860 Howarth 24 1914 surfaceformations on the outer face of said cov- 1,867,309 Etzkom July 1932ering, said covering being applied to the reel in 1,959426 Henderson May22, 1934 a spirally wound strip with the convolutions of 10 2,133,323McClellan Oct 18 1938 the windings in spaced relation, and means for2,320,891 Ryder June 1, 1943 securing the strip to the reel.

FOREIGN PATENTS LEONARD J. LEDERER. Number Country Date LEONARD LEDERER,JR. 15 539,220 Great Britain Sept. 1, 1941

